From 2009-2012 I paid off 28,000 of my own debt. During that time I moved from Long Beach back to Whittier, met the man who is now my husband, and learned tons about how to manage my money. I'm back to blogging now that I'm married and my husband and I work to pay off his student loans. We're adding a baby to the mix this year, to keep things interesting. I don't own a home (and I'm just past 30) but I've come a long way on my financial journey!

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Free Samples

I've come to the conclusion that free samples really can add up to save you money. At the end of October I ran out of both shampoo and conditioner. I feel like now that I have longer hair, I'm definitely going through them faster, so I wasn't quite ready to spend money on my expensive brand (close to $20 each).

I went through my sample stash and found some of the same brand in sample size from my hair dresser. I used those first. Then I went on to my Aveda samples. Now I'm breaking into some samples I got from a Target giveaway. I'm user Tresamme, which advertises that it has "less sulfates" so I'm okay with that for now. I think I have enough sample stuff stashed away that I can get through November without buying more shampoo and conditioner.

Yes, I'll have to buy it eventually. And in the grand scheme of things going one month without buying shampoo and conditioner isn't going to make or break me. But, I do think that if you take advantage of samples whenever you can, it really does add up over time. I find most of my samples from The Freebie Blogger, which I check about once a week to see if there's anything worth requesting.

There's a P&G program, like Carla said, that sends out free samples of lots of their products once every six months. I'm using shampoo/conditioner samples from them right now, but I'm actually trying to use up all my samples because my bathroom cabinet was so cluttered with them! David's grandmother also gives us necessities for the holidays. Last year it was a huge bottle of Paul Mitchell shampoo that is still about half full! I hope she repeats that gift this year. ;)

I always take the remaining/extra soaps and shampoos when staying in hotels. These days they tend to be good quality stuff too. Stayed in a Westin recently and they had great organic shampoo. Figured better than them throwing it all away

I'm all about samples and freebies, especially when they're full-sized! I get a ton of things from Facebook on "Free Stuff & Free Samples from mycoolfreebies.com" and ""Free Samples and Freebies." Just remember to sign up using your spam email address--you do get an unfortunate amount of junk email but I haven't noticed where they're actually sending junk mail to my house.

I also take extras from hotels when I like what they provide--I'll just find a cleaning person and politely ask for some extras; they always are more than happy to give them to me!